Of the 192 spines found on posts in the region, archaeologists found that, in almost every case, they were made from the remains of a single individual, according to the study
An international team of researchers working in the Chincha Valley, on Peru's southern coast, found the majority of the"vertebrae-on-posts" in large Indigenous graves known as"chullpas," which date back hundreds of years to around the time that European colonizers were present in the South American country. published Tuesday in the archaeology journal Antiquity.
Looting was primarily intended to remove grave goods made of gold and silver and would have gone hand in hand with European efforts to eradicate indigenous religious practices and funerary customs," Bongers said in a news release.Analysis of the spines on the posts suggests that they might have been created to repair the damage done to the dead by looting, the study said.